About the Hotel

The Hotel is situated in the heart of the Welsh valleys, elevated high on Maesrudded Hill, with spectacular views over the surrounding countryside. Immersed within nine acres of beautifully manicured terraced lawns and woodland in Blackwood, this majestic manor house offers a haven of peace and tranquility for both the business and leisure visitor, far away from the stresses of everyday life.

Maesrudded was the home of Mr. Edmund Williams and his family. At the beginning of the 19th Century, the building was a prosperous farm, with large land holdings. In 1814, Mr. Edmund Williams is recorded as having let the rights to extract coal from part of his land to the Argoed and Newport Coal Company at a shilling to royalty. Williams fathered four children – William, Edmund Davies, Mary and Margaret.

On October 9th 1868, at a sale at the Westgate Hotel Newport, Edmund Davies Williams purchased Hollybush Colliery, with all machinery, rolling stock, and the rights to 80 acres of coal bearing land that would be exploited for the next 50 years. In 1887 at the time of the Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Edmund Davies Williams is documented as JP, Deputy Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff of Monmouthshire. Just three years later in 1890, the farmhouse was rebuilt to the manor house we see today.

Edmund Davies Williams died in 1895 and his estate was valued at £62,622 18/2d (the equivalent today of over £4.5 million). His estates were granted to his two sisters, Margaret Williams (spinster) and Mary Brewer (widow). In 1864
Mr. Edmund Williams’ daughter, Mary had married Thomas Llewellyn Brewer of Danygraig, Christchurch, Newport. Mary and Thomas Llewellyn Brewer had a son, Edmund Williams Tom Llewellyn Brewer who went on to become a barrister, a magistrate, High Sheriff and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire.

Edmund Williams Tom Llewellyn Brewer took the name of Williams by Royal License to become the heir to his uncle, becoming Edmund Williams Tom Llewellyn Brewer Williams. in 1907, he commissioned Thomas H Maweson, a famous landscape designer of high repute, to design the gardens at the new house, Maesrudded, plans of which can be found in T.H. Mawson’s book, ‘The Art and Craft of Garden Making.’ Other examples of Mawson’s work can be seen at Duffryn Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Plans were apparently drawn up before the First World War for a new wing to the house, although only a stable block was completed. The stable block still remains today, now known as the
Coach house, where after much refurbishment there are 14 tastefully decorated rooms.

The family appears to have left Maesrudded in the 1930s. The house was then used as a hospital and a children’s home before
becoming the Maes Manor Hotel. In recent years the hotel has been carefully refurbished to offer the
modern comforts of the most contemporary hotels alongside the traditional ideals of a charming country house, now boasting the largest banqueting hall in South Wales.

The history of the site, Maesrudded can be traced back to 1434 and translated means “Freedom Field.”